Stillman & Birn Beta Series Softcover Sketchbook, 5.5" x 8.5", 270 gsm (Extra Heavyweight), White Paper, Cold Press Surface

The quality of the pages is amazing! I keep coming back to this sketchbook after trying so many others. I know I can trust this one with pretty much anything. It’s a lil tough to lay flat at first but it’ll become more flexible with time. Also, I love that you can paint on the inside of the cover and the back. They’re usable pages!

I have tried dozens of various sketchbooks and this one is the best if you use heavier washes of watercolor. I like the soft cover because it fits easily into my purse or backpack. Although the paper is not 100% cotton it is high quality, does not pill if scrubbed a bit and takes the color quite nicely. An all around winner.

This sketchbook is perfect for working with both wet and dry media. It has a good amount of bite for pencil or charcoal, etc. but at the same time a fine point marker does not bleed around strokes. The paper is thick and super tough and saturated watercolor or ink also does not bleed through to the other side. Tough and durable makes it good for a lot of erasing or smudging. This thing can take a beating. It's my new all-purpose go-to sketchbook.

I have bought several of these books over the years. While I try others from time to time, I always end up going back to this sketchbook. I love the thick quality of the paper. There is no bleed and you can use tons of water with no problem. I WISH there were more pages but you cannot find a softcover book with any more than 28 pages at this thickness. This is the best watercolor sketchbook.

Excellent sketchbook for watercolour. The paper is sturdy and doesn't buckle very much. Only buckles slightly for light watercolour washes, for heavier washes, it does warp a little bit but not as bad as the moleskin I have.The background is crispy white, not toned. Most pages open evenly, however due to the heavy thicker paper, there are some pages that don't open entirely flat.Its 300 GSM paper.

I have had this sketchbook for almost a month now and it is almost halfway full. TL;DR - pretty darn good little sketchbook, I reccomend it.Getting into the nitty gritty:Supplies tested- watercolor, ink, gouache, sharpie, copic, pencil, colored pencil, marker, and fountain penPaper-Good thick, not as much texture as I was expecting for a cold press watercolor paper, but enough texture to make things interesting. Takes layers well.Cons- though it is bound in signatures the glue between some of the signatures seems a bit excessive and makes it hard to draw across the spread on the pages with glue. Certain art materials do rub off on the pages particularly gouache and pencil (though this may be due to the materials and not the paper). Copic does bleed through.Pros- Due to the signature binding (which I love) the book does open flat after you break in the binding. Paper can take multiple layers of watercolor and gouache, for a wood pulp paper it handles the water mostly well, but layers dry faster than you think and can make paintings slightly blotchy.

I have been using this for "artist night at the opera" sketches and it is working for me very well. It will fold flat so I can sketch across two pages and the quality of the paper is quite good for a sketchbook. I haven't used the hard back version yet but this sketchbook behaves so well I have bought more to use.

Lov